Marine / New fishing partnership enters industry
A NEW fishing partnership has entered the local industry after buying the whitefish trawler Devotion (LK801) from skipper Gary Smith and partners.
Brodie Ramsay, Jack Garrick (19), and skipper John Williamson (53) are joint owners of the 23-metre vessel, built in 1993.
The sale of the vessel, including licences and quota, marks another chapter in the ongoing process of younger crews taking over.
Twenty year old Ramsay, from Ollaberry, who has already been at the fishing for the last five years, said the move felt like a “good opportunity to get into the industry”.
Former skipper Gary Smith said he had been at the fishing for 33 years and had been wanting to downsize for some time. He has now switched to working inshore with his own creel boat.
Ramsay said he accepted that this was not the easiest time to join the industry, which is suffering from ever increasing running costs.
“It will be difficult with the price of fuel and the quota just now, but we are hoping it will improve in the future. Fuel prices surely can’t stay like this for ever,” he said.
He said they were hoping to head out to the fishing ground sometime over the next few days, landing their first catch at the Lerwick fish market next week.
Earlier this year a younger crew took over the Copious (LK985) as part of a generational shift within the local fishing industry, and in December last year the Sedulous (LK308) and Defiant (LK371) changed hands.
The Copious was renamed Brighter Hope (LK98) and Sedulous is now Comrades (LK308).
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